What do we lose when we start again?

There is something appealing about a clean sheet.

When a process feels slow, confusing or outdated, starting again can seem more attractive than trying to repair what is already there. A new structure, a new system, a redesigned process. Sometimes that is exactly what is needed. But I wonder whether starting again can also make it easier to overlook what the existing system already knows.

I came across this question several years ago while studying Business Process Management. Hammer and Champy’s work on Business Process Reengineering argued for a much more radical approach to improvement. Rather than simply refining existing processes, organisations should be prepared to rethink them fundamentally (Hammer & Champy, 1993). The approach was influential because it challenged the assumption that the best way forward was always to improve what already existed. But it was also criticised. Later work highlighted some of the risks of starting from scratch, including approaches that could become overly linear and pay too little attention to the human dimension of organisations (Bălănescu & Maşcu, 2014).

That tension still feels relevant.

Existing processes can certainly accumulate waste, duplication and habits that no longer make sense. Dumas, La Rosa, Mendling and Reijers (2018) describe Business Process Management as a way of understanding how work is performed so that organisations can improve outcomes and identify opportunities for improvement. That requires us to question what exists rather than accept it simply because it is familiar.

But an existing process may also contain things that are harder to see. People may have developed informal ways of solving problems. Relationships may have formed around particular activities. Individuals may understand where exceptions occur, which parts require judgement and which apparent inefficiencies are actually compensating for something elsewhere in the system. Not all of that will appear on a process map.

So when we redesign something, perhaps the question is not simply whether the new process looks better. It is whether we have understood enough about the old one to know what we are removing. Research into process improvement also points to the importance of the human side of implementation. Changes do not succeed simply because the redesigned process is technically stronger. Culture, communication and the commitment of the people expected to work within it also matter (Lam, O’Donnell & O’Donnell, 2015).

This does not mean protecting ineffective processes from change. Sometimes wholesale redesign will be the right response. But there may be a difference between challenging what exists and assuming that everything inherited is a problem. Perhaps the clean sheet is useful precisely because it allows us to imagine something different. The danger may come when we mistake a clean sheet for a blank system, because organisations rarely begin again completely. They carry people, experience, relationships and accumulated knowledge with them.

Perhaps the most useful question is:

When we start again, how do we know what is worth leaving behind, and what is worth taking with us?

Further Reading

• Bălănescu, V., & Maşcu, M. (2014). Implementing business process management. Business Excellence and Management, 4.

• Dumas, M., La Rosa, M., Mendling, J., & Reijers, H. A. (2018). Fundamentals of Business Process Management (2nd ed.). Springer.

• Hammer, M., & Champy, J. (1993). Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.

• Lam, M., O’Donnell, M., & O’Donnell, M. (2015). Achieving employee commitment for continuous improvement initiatives. International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 35(2), 201–215.